Congress Extends Deadline to Finish Work on Budget

Washington Post

Published 4:00 am, Saturday, October 10, 1998

1998-10-10 04:00:00 PDT Washington -- With last-minute spending talks bogged down and no compromises apparent on core issues, an anxious Congress gave itself a three-day extension yesterday to finish its work to keep the federal government operating.

To avert a repeat of the 1995 government shutdowns, the House voted 421 to 0 to adopt an extension of a temporary funding bill that was due to expire at midnight last night for agencies that have yet to receive their new funding. The Senate later approved the extension by a voice vote.

Republican and White House negotiators now have until midnight Monday to work out scores of disagreements over money and policy matters from educational spending initiatives to the environment to whether to require parental notification when minors receive contraceptives.

Negotiators said the toughest disputes still focus on whether and how to provide additional loan authority to the International Monetary Fund and whether to allow the use of statistical sampling in the upcoming census, as the administration proposes, or insist on the traditional head count only.

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Republicans are also pressing for some type of tax relief before adjourning, although they have abandoned hopes for agreement on a major $80 billion tax cut over five years that was endorsed by the House.

The House Ways and Means Committee approved a $9.2 billion package yesterday that focuses chiefly on reauthorizing seven relatively minor tax breaks, such as a credit for business research and development. The Senate Finance Committee drafted a similar measure that focuses on eight expiring tax breaks, including some but not all of the measures in the House bill. But with time short, differences in the two proposals could reduce chances of a final agreement.

Clinton met with about two dozen House and Senate Democrats yesterday, emerging from the meeting to lash Republicans for their snubbing of his spending and tax proposals to subsidize education. The administration is pushing for more spending on what Clinton called a "strong down payment" on his goal of helping local schools hire 100,000 teachers to reduce class sizes in the early grades; for tax incentives to help localities offset the debt costs of modernizing or building new schools; and for additional money for child literacy and Head Start preschool programs.